Man, Past and Present Part 23

Introduced by the early Arab and Persian traders, and zealously preached throughout the Jagatai empire in the twelfth century, it has secured a firm footing especially in Kan-su, Shen-si, and Yunnan, and is of course dominant in Eastern (Chinese) Turkestan. Despite the wholesale butcheries that followed the repeated insurrections between 1855 and 1877, the _Hoe-Hoe_, _Panthays_, or _Dungans_, as the Muhammadans are variously called, were still estimated, in 1898, at about 22,000,000 in the whole empire.

Islam was preceded by Christianity, which, as attested by the authentic inscription of Si-ngan-fu, penetrated into the western provinces under the form of Nestorianism about the seventh century. The famous Roman Catholic missions with headquarters at Pekin date from the close of the sixteenth century, and despite internal dissensions have had a fair measure of success, the congregations comprising altogether over one million members. Protestant missions date from 1807 (London Missionary Society) and in 1910 claimed over 200,000 church members and baptized Christians, the total having more than doubled since 1900[488].

The above-mentioned dissensions arose out of the practices a.s.sociated with ancestry wors.h.i.+p, offerings of flowers, fruits and so forth, which the Jesuits regarded merely as proofs of filial devotion, but were denounced by the Dominicans as acts of idolatry. After many years of idle controversy, the question was at last decided against the Jesuits by Clement XI in the famous Bull, _Ex illa die_ (1715), and since then, neophytes having to renounce the national cult of their forefathers, conversions have mainly been confined to the lower cla.s.ses, too humble to boast of any family tree, or too poor to commemorate the dead by ever-recurring costly sepulchral rites.

In China there are no hereditary n.o.bles, indeed no n.o.bles at all, unless it be the rather numerous descendants of Confucius who dwell together and enjoy certain social privileges, in this somewhat resembling the _Shorfa_ (descendants of the Prophet) in Muhammadan lands. If any t.i.tles have to be awarded for great deeds they fall, not on the hero, but on his forefathers, and thus at a stroke of the vermilion pencil are enn.o.bled countless past generations, while the last of the line remains unhonoured until he goes over to the majority. Between the Emperor, "patriarch of his people," and the people themselves, however, there stood an aristocracy of talent, or at least of Chinese scholars.h.i.+p, the governing Mandarin[489] cla.s.s, which was open to the highest and the lowest alike. All nominations to office were conferred exclusively on the successful compet.i.tors at the public examinations, so that, like the French conscript with the hypothetical Marshal's baton in his knapsack, every Chinese citizen carried the b.u.t.toned cap of official rank in his capacious sleeve. Of these there are nine grades, indicated respectively in descending order by the ruby, red coral, sapphire, opaque blue, crystal, white sh.e.l.l, gold (two), and silver b.u.t.ton, or rather little globe, on the cap of office, with which correspond the nine birds--manchu crane, golden pheasant, peac.o.c.k, wild goose, silver pheasant, egret, mandarin duck, quail, and jay--embroidered on the breast and back of the State robe.

Theoretically the system is admirable, and at all events is better than appointments by Court favour. But in practice it was vitiated, first by the narrow, antiquated course of studies in the dry Chinese cla.s.sics, calculated to produce pedants rather than statesmen, and secondly by the monopoly of preference which it conferred on a lettered caste to the exclusion of men of action, vigour, and enterprise. Moreover, appointments being made for life, barring crime or blunder, the Mandarins, as long as they approved themselves zealous supporters of the reigning dynasty, enjoyed a free hand in ama.s.sing wealth by plunder, and the wealth thus acquired was used to purchase further promotion and advancement, rather than to improve the welfare of the people.

They have the reputation of being a courteous people, as punctilious as the Malays themselves; and they are so amongst each other. But their att.i.tude towards strangers is the embodiment of aggressive self-righteousness, a complacent feeling of superiority which nothing can disturb. Even the upper cla.s.ses, with all their efforts to be at least polite, often betray the feeling in a subdued arrogance which is not always to be distinguished from vulgar insolence. "After the courteous, kindly j.a.panese, the Chinese seem indifferent, rough, and disagreeable, except the well-to-do merchants in the shops, who are bland, complacent, and courteous. Their rude stare, and the way they hustle you in the streets and shout their 'pidjun' English at you is not attractive[490]." But the stare, the hustling and the shouting may not be due to incivility. No doubt the Chinaman regards the foreigner as a "devil" but he has reason, and he never ceases to be astonished at foreign manners and customs "extremely ferocious and almost entirely uncivilised[491]."

FOOTNOTES:

[375] _Ethnology_, p. 300.

[376] _Geogr. Journ._, May, 1898, p. 491. This statement must of course be taken as having reference only to the historical Malays and their comparatively late migrations.

[377] For the desiccation of Asia see P. Kropotkin, _Geogr. Journ._ XXIII. 1904; E. Huntington, _The Pulse of Asia_, 1907.

[378] See J. c.o.c.kburn's paper "On Palaeolithic Implements," etc., in _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1887, p. 57 sq.

[379] "Le type. primitif des Mongols est pour nous dolichocephale" (_Les Aryens au Nord et au Sud de l'Hindou-Kouch_, 1896, p. 50).

[380] Thus Risley's Tibetan measurements were all of subjects from Sikkim and Nepal (_Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, Calcutta, 1896, _pa.s.sim_). In the East, however, DesG.o.dins and other French missionaries have had better opportunities of studying true Tibetans amongst the Si-fan ("Western Strangers"), as the frontier populations are called by the Chinese.

[381] _Op. cit._ p. 319.

[382] _Op. cit._ p. 327. Here we are reminded that, though the Sacae are called "Scythians" by Herodotus and other ancient writers, under this vague expression were comprised a mult.i.tude of heterogeneous peoples, amongst whom were types corresponding to all the main varieties of Mongolian, western Asiatic, and eastern European peoples. "Aujourd'hui l'ancien type sace, adouci parmi les melanges, reparait et const.i.tue le type si caracteristique, si complexe et si different de ses voisins que nous appelons le type balti" (p. 328).

[383] W. W. Rockhill, our best living authority, accepts none of the current explanations of the widely diffused term _bod_ (_bhot, bhot_), which appears to form the second element in the word _Tibet_ (_Stod-Bod_, p.r.o.nounced _Teu-Beu_, "Upper Bod," _i.e._ the central and western parts in contradistinction to _Man-Bod_, "Lower Bod," the eastern provinces). _Notes on the Ethnology of Tibet_, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1895, p. 669. This writer finds the first mention of Tibet in the form _Tobbat_ (there are many variants) in the Arab Istakhri's works, about 590 A.H., while T. de Lacouperie would connect it with the Tatar kingdom of _Tu-bat_ (397-475 A.D.). This name might easily have been extended by the Chinese from the Tatars of Kansu to the neighbouring Tanguts, and thus to all Tibetans.

[384] _Hbrog-pa_, _Drok-pa_, p.r.o.nounced _Dru-pa_.

[385] The Mongols apply the name _Tangut_ to Tibet and call all Tibetans _Tangutu_, "which should be discarded as useless and misleading, as the people inhabiting this section of the country are pure Tibetans"

(Rockhill, p. 670). It is curious to note that the Mongol Tangutu is balanced by the Tibetan _Sok-pa_, often applied to all Mongolians.

[386] _Notes on the Ethnology of Tibet_, 1895, p. 675; see also S.

Chandra Das, _Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet_, 1904; F. Grenard, _Tibet: the Country and its Inhabitants_, 1904; G. Sandberg, _Tibet and the Tibetans_, 1906; and L. A. Waddell, _Lhasa and its Mysteries, with a record of the Expedition of 1903-1904_, 1905.

[387] _Isvestia_, XXI. 3.

[388] _Ethnology_, p. 305.

[389] _Abor_, _i.e._ "independent," is the name applied by the a.s.samese to the East Himalayan hill tribes, the _Minyong_, _Padam_ and _Hra.s.so_, who are the _Slo_ of the Tibetans. These are all affiliated by DesG.o.dins to the Lho-pa of Bhutan (_Bul. Soc. Geogr._, October, 1877, p. 431), and are to be distinguished from the _Bori_ (_i.e._ "dependent") tribes of the plains, all more or less Hinduized Bhotiyas (Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 22 sq.). See A. Hamilton, _In Abor Jungles_, 1912.

[390] Not to be confused with the _Khas_, as the wild tribes of the Lao country (Siam) are collectively called. Capt. Eden Vansittart thinks in Nepal the term is an abbreviation of Kshatriya, or else means "fallen."

This authority tells us that, although the Khas are true Gurkhas, it is not the Khas who enlist in our Gurkha regiments, but chiefly the Magars and Gurungs, who are of purer Bhotiya race and less completely Hinduized ("The Tribes, Clans, and Castes of Nepal," in _Journ. As. Soc. Bengal_; LXIII. I, No. 4).

[391] _Emba.s.sy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama_, p. 350 sq.

[392] "Voila, je crois, le vrai Tibetain des pays cultives du sud, qui se regarde comme bien plus civilise que les pasteurs ou bergers du nord"

(_Le Thibet_, p. 253).

[393] _Notes on the Ethnology_, etc., p. 677. It may here be remarked that the unfriendliness of which travellers often complain appears mainly inspired by the Buddhist theocracy, who rule the land and are jealous of all "interlopers."

[394] _Ibid._ p. 678.

[395] With it may be compared the Chinese province of _Kan-su_, so named from its two chief towns _Kan_-chau and _Su_-chau (Yule's _Marco Polo_, I. p. 222).

[396] "Buddhist Turks," says Sir H. H. Howorth (_Geogr. Journ._ 1887, p.

230).

[397] E. Delmar Morgan, _Geogr. Journ._ 1887, p. 226.

[398] "Whatever may have been the origin of polyandry, there can be no doubt that poverty, a desire to keep down population, and to keep property undivided in families, supply sufficient reason to justify its continuance. The same motives explain its existence among the lower castes of Malabar, among the Jat (Sikhs) of the Panjab, among the Todas, and probably in most other countries in which this custom prevails"

(Rockhill, p. 726).

[399] T. Rice Holmes, _Ancient Britain_, 1907, pp. 110 and 465-6.

[400] At least no reference is made to the Bonbo practice in his almost exhaustive monograph on _The Swastika_, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1896. The reversed form, however, mentioned by Max Muller and Burnouf, is figured at p. 767 and elsewhere.

[401] Sarat Chandra Das, _Journ. As. Soc. Bengal_, 1881-2.

[402] This point, so important in the history of linguistic evolution, has I think been fairly established by T. de Lacouperie in a series of papers in the _Oriental and Babylonian Record_, 1888-90. See G. A.

Grierson's _Linguistic Survey of India_, III. Tibeto-Burman Family, 1906, by Sten Konow.

[403] _Ladak_, London, 1854.

[404] G. B. Mainwaring, _A Grammar of the Rong (Lepcha) Language_, etc., Calcutta, 1876, pp. 128-9.

[405] _Outline Grammar of the Angami-Naga Language_, Calcutta, 1887, pp.

4, 5. For an indication of the astonis.h.i.+ng number of distinct languages in the whole of this region see Gertrude M. G.o.dden's paper "On the Naga and other Frontier Tribes of North-East India," in _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1897, p. 165. Under the heading Tibeto-Burman Languages Sten Konow recognises _Tibetan_, _Himalayan_, _North a.s.sam_, _Bodo_, _Naga_, _Kuki-Chin_, _Meitei_ and _Kachin_. The Naga group comprises dialects of very different kinds; some approach Tibetan and the North a.s.sam group, others lead over to the Bodo, others connect with Tibeto-Burman. Meitei lies midway between Kuki-Chin and Kachin, and these merge finally in Burmese. Grierson's _Linguistic Survey of India_, Vol. III. 1903-6.

[406] Almost hopeless confusion continues to prevail in the tribal nomenclature of these mult.i.tudinous hill peoples. The official sanction given to the terms _Kuki_ and _Lushai_ as collective names may be regretted, but seems now past remedy. _Kuki_ is unknown to the people themselves, while _Lushai_ is only the name of a single group proud of their head-hunting proclivities, hence they call themselves, or perhaps are called _Lu-Shai_, "Head-Cutters," from _lu_ head, _sha_ to cut (G.

H. Damant). Other explanations suggested by C. A. Soppitt (_Kuki-Lushai Tribes, with an Outline Grammar of the Rangkhol-Lushai Language_, s.h.i.+llong, 1887) cannot be accepted.

[407] _Op. cit._

[408] See G. A. Grierson and Sten Konow in Grierson's _Linguistic Survey of India_, Vol. III. Part II. Bodo, N[=a]g[=a] and Kachin, 1903, Part III. Kuki-Chin and Burma, 1904.

[409] _The N[=a]ga Tribes of Manipur_, 1911, p. 2. Cf. J. Shakespear, "The Kuki-Lushai Clans," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ x.x.xIX. 1909.

[410] _Op. cit. p. 5._

[411] _Op. cit._ p. 122. A custom of human sacrifice among the Naga is described in the _Journal of the Burma Research Society_, 1911, "Human Sacrifices near the Upper Chindwin."

[412] It is a curious phonetic phenomenon that the combinations _kl_ and _tl_ are indistinguishable in utterance, so that it is immaterial whether this term be written _Kling_ or _Tling_, though the latter form would be preferable, as showing its origin from _Telinga_.